Demoscene

The demoscene is an international <a href="/facts/Computer_art/8CVAaW07">computer art</a> <a href="/facts/Subculture/xUYDM25I">subculture</a> focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce <a href="/facts/Audiovisual/7BPs5I28">audiovisual</a> presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off <a href="/facts/Computer_programming/QmSsFnu0">programming</a>, visual art, and musical skills. Demos and other demoscene productions (graphics, music, videos, games) are shared, voted on and released online at festivals known as demoparties.
The scene started with the <a href="/facts/Home_computer/CDEPVd1T">home computer</a> revolution of the early 1980s, and the subsequent advent of <a href="/facts/Software_cracking/GFHWRHCG">software cracking</a>. Crackers altered the code of <a href="/facts/Computer_game/AEDr23gA">computer games</a> to remove copy protection, claiming credit by adding introduction screens of their own ("<a href="/facts/Crack_intro/SpVs3KVj">cracktros</a>"). They soon started competing for the best visual presentation of these additions. Through the making of intros and stand-alone demos, a new community eventually evolved, independent of the gaming: 29–30  and <a href="/facts/Warez_scene/aAvyyMmy">software sharing</a> scenes.
Demos are informally classified into several categories, mainly of size-restricted intros. The most typical competition categories for intros are the 64k intro and the 4K intro, where the size of the executable file is restricted to 65536 and 4096 bytes, respectively. In other competitions the choice of platform is restricted; only <a href="/facts/8-bit/2CkhLNoH">8-bit</a> computers like the Atari 800 or Commodore 64, or the 16-bit <a href="/facts/Amiga/60B3A9of">Amiga</a> or <a href="/facts/Atari_ST/9GsYSlaM">Atari ST</a>. Such restrictions provide a challenge for coders, musicians, and graphics artists, to make a device do more than was intended in its original design.

Demoscene open-in-new

Demoscene